RWBY Through Worlds

54: Scarecrow

[At 15 chapters in of this arc, it's hard to believe only three days have passed. What is this, Volume 6?

See, I never thought the team should be gone for that much time in the timeline, but for that much time to spend on their absence, actually... I'm more open minded.]

Neapolitan had gone out into the streets with little idea of what she was looking for, or where to find it, but on some blind instinct, she headed just down the street with the tents on it, towards where the makeshift houses were.

She didn't have much else to go on.

Strange that she had little doubt at this moment, however, that it had really happened. Neo was either more naive or more confident than most people.

However, she'd almost given up of finding anything, until suddenly she heard someone say,

"Neo?!"

If that wasn't the very last thing she'd ever heard Roman say!

She turned toward the sound--also hesitantly, for all that.

Somehow it was almost not strange at all, though.

Roman Torchwick, lacking both his hat and his cane, but otherwise in the same attire as when last she saw him, was standing at the corner of one street, looking completely puzzled by where he was, but otherwise completely intact.

"How hard did I hit my head?" he said. "Neo, come here and give me my hat at once! What did I say about touching it without permission?"

Of course that was mostly a joke, and Neo didn't even stop to acknowledge it.

She sprang across the street, regardless of the person she almost ploughed over in the process despite her size, and jumped on Roman when he wasn't quite ready for it, knocking him over.

"Neo, what on Remnant has gotten into you?" he said.

Neo grabbed his face to be sure it was true, but it was...yes, just the same...

She got up and burst into tears quite without warning--and of course without sound, so it took a split second for Torchwick to even see it.

"Neo...?" He was utterly baffled. "Whatever are you upset about now? What's going on?... And where is this? It looks like Vacuo...in the middle of a sandstorm no less... Ugh, I hate sand. Are you crying because you got sand in your eye? You know you should try one of those sand mask things if so..."

Neo realized he had no memory at all of what happened.

She wiped her face off and looked puzzled.

"Be honest...how hammered did I get after the battle? Because I recall literally nothing after Little Red and the plane," Torchwick said. "Oh, and you fell off it--I remember that, but I see you're all right... What did I tell you about those theatrics! One of these days you're going to push your luck too far, you know that? Anyway, it all came out fine in the end. I told that little brat I'd survive--"

Neo suddenly punched him in the face.

Torchwick was so caught off guard he just stared at her.

Neo began making motions at him furiously.

He didn't understand all her signals entirely, but he knew things like "dead" and "killed" and "Grimm".

"Stop, stop, stop, what are you on about?" he cut in.

Neo slowed down enough to spell it out.

"You'll kill me if I ever get eaten again?" Torchwick was puzzled.